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Thank you to all of the collaborators and speakers who made the “Circularity Gap: Meeting societal needs & preserving global resources” event at #Davos2023 a great success. 🙌🏼 In partnership with Impact Hub Switzerland, Deloitte, Circle Economy, Circular Economy Switzerland & InTent, important and insightful discussions took place regarding different aspects of the Circular Economy. 🚀 Right now, the global economy is now only 7.2% circular. Switzerland has the necessary resources, technology, policy, and regulation support to build a consistent ecosystem for developing a circular economy. However, to scale the transition to a circular economy, purpose-driven #collaboration between the public and private sectors is essential. 💡 Kickstart is proud to work with partners, investors, scaleups, and experts who are champions of collaboration, and work together to build #innovative and #sustainable solutions for the future. 💪🏼 Don’t forget to save the date - 20 March - for the official launch of the Switzerland Circular Economy Report. 🇨🇭🌿 For now, you can find the Global Circularity Gap Report here: https://www.circularity-gap.world/2023 🌎

This year, Kickstart welcomed 52 later-stage startups and intrapreneurship teams from over 16 countries as part of our 2022 program. Together with our partners, we announced a record number of 55 deals at our annual Closing Ceremony on 17th November following the 10-week program. Read all about the achievements of our scaleups, intrapreneurship teams, and partners here. Year Wrap-up 2022 Highlights Check out our 2022 Kickstart Lookback Video for a highlight reel of all of our main events, including our Opening Ceremony, CEO Dinners in Zürich & Lausanne, collaboration announcements, and insights from our cohort and partners. Weekly Digests Throughout the 10-week program, we shared weekly Digests with our community, re-capping each week, highlighting vertical news and successes from our 2022 cohort & alumni, and more. You can find them all on our website here. #Kickstarter22 Spotlight Series This year, we spotlighted a number of incredible startups through the means of fun & quick interviews to gain further insight into their startup journeys, unveil their driving forces, and expose what it REALLY takes to be an entrepreneur in 2022. Find out more about finmarie from Finance & Insurance, eevie from New Work & Learning, meersens & Happy Bob from Health & Wellbeing, Urbanistic from Smart Cities, and Purcell from Food & Retail by clicking on the links. Intrapreneurship Academy Launch Initiated Intrapreneurship projects in 2022 include Gridsteer’s multi-year and EU-wide research project in partnership with EPFL, local operator Romande Energie and the fast charging station operator GOFAST We also launched the Kickstart Academy with more support for organizations with access to hackathons, innovation sprints, expert sessions, and more. Organizations engaged have included: Credit Suisse, Hirslanden, Swisscom, CSEM, La Mobilière, AXA, Holcim, PostFinance, Axpo, and energie360. Get involved! Pre-registrations are open for Kickstart 2023: If you are a later-stage startup in the fields of Health & Wellbeing, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, New Work & Learning or Smart Cities, looking for strategic partnerships to scale your venture, you can pre-register now for our 2023 Program here. Apply to be an Expert and Advisor for Kickstart 2023: If you are a later-stage startup in the fields of Health & Wellbeing, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, New Work & Learning or Smart Cities, looking for strategic partnerships to scale your venture, you can pre-register now for our 2023 Program here. In other news... Are you looking for an inspiring venue in Zürich for your next conference, event, workshop, or meeting? Check out Kraftwerk at Bahnhof Selnau ( there is also Colab at Limmatplatz, and Viadukt, incl. catering & tech support) and book directly online or email. Happy Holidays & See you in 2023! 🎊

With the Insurtech Map, we have had the privilege of being right on the pulse of the InsurTech ecosystem, a front seat to the evolution of the industry. With more than 200+ startups on our lineup from all over Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, we’ve seen the many achievements of an ever-growing community. New additions to the Map This said we are excited to announce the addition of 14 startups to the platform. A warm welcome to Automation Hero, Baobab, EDUBAO, Embea, Garentii, MyGutachter, SureIn & Vinlivt from Germany 🇩🇪 and 3rd-eyes analytics, Coinnect, Dacadoo, DGTAL, grape & ZenOwn from Switzerland 🇨🇭. To highlight a few of our new additions: 💡 grape (Switzerland) is the next-gen employee insurer providing group health, accident, and life coverages bundled with their B2B software solution. 💡 EDUBAO (Germany) provides insurance solutions designed for ex-pats, such as international students, professionals, vocational trainees, and more for their stay in Germany and abroad. 💡 DGTAL (Switzerland)transforms unstructured insurance information into smart data and develops AI models to analyze and optimize claims handling. In addition, we are thrilled to see 6 startups from Austria, Switzerland, and Germany selected for the Insurtech100 list of the world’s most innovative InsurTech companies in 2022: bsurance from Austria 🇦🇹, Celciuspro, Dacadoo, DGTAL, RiskWolf from Switzerland 🇨🇭, and Scanbot from Germany 🇩🇪. Insights from Initiators of the InsurTech Map Katka Letzing CEO & Co-Founder at Kickstart shares, “As funding into Europe’s InsurTech market reached a record of over €2BN this year - over 300% increase from 2021 - this showcases the demand and importance of the innovative solutions these InsurTechs are bringing to the table. Over the next years, we are specifically interested in seeing the InsurTech Map grow with startups driving sustainable development in the fields of renewable energy, AI, ML, and cloud-based solutions reducing data center emissions, as well as satellite imagery to assess risks and develop mitigation strategies.” Ruth Armalé, Head of Open Innovation at HITS, highlights that “Almost 40% of startups on the Insurtech Map are in the Distribution and Marketing value chain step. Insurtechs are magnifying the way we advise & create long-lasting relationships with our customers. This aligns with the insurance trend of focusing on creating phygital experiences and enabling insurer stakeholders to connect better with consumers. Furthermore, insurance companies are moving more and more into the B2B2C space, and it is exciting to see more embedded insurance options out there." Marc Hauser adds, "It is very positive to see increased funding and higher collaboration appetite by incumbents. Especially in the currently difficult economic climate. We see this as a sign for accelerated momentum, which will attract even more insurtechs to enter the space. Incumbents face changing clients needs and are looking to establish partnerships with startups to provide answers more quickly. A virtuous cycle that will continue to accelerate innovation in 2023 and beyond." Success stories Austrian digital insurer L’AIME Direkt has specialized in the implementation of digital insurance processes in non-insurance companies. They have recently expanded into over 10 countries & have over 600,000 customers. Helvengo, Swiss-based InsurTech, raised over €4 million in its seed round earlier this year, making it one of the top 10 highest seed deals globally in the first half of 2022 (out of 78 InsurTech from 27 countries) Swiss InsurTech Dacadoo was awarded InsurTech of the Year at the first Swiss InsurTech Summit & Awards 2022, with special recognition prizes awarded to Enterprise Bot and vlot, these last two share the working space at HITS’ Innovation Garage in Generali’s headquarters. And Jarowa, won first place at the Innovationspreis der Schweizer Assekuranz with its platform Mira, which automates coverage checks for claims notifications. Industry trends According to recent studies by Deloitte, the global InsurTech market is expected to grow more than 50% per year, driven by increasing insurance claims and advanced technologies. The core trends that will drive this growth are: Acceleration in industry digitization, including legislation, business models, and scaling Unlocking the value of collaboration in the form of new partnerships and increased investments into InsurTechs Hyper-personalisation, putting the client at the core and providing holistic offerings for all things insurance In regards to the European InsurTech market, the majority of deals are focused on Distribution, mainly Property & Casualty. Germany is among the top 3 dominating countries in the sector, alongside the UK and France. As the regional insurance industry is highly regulated in Europe, InsurTechs are able to leverage emerging regulations and management of these as a business opportunity. Join us! To join this incredible community or nominate an InsurTech startup, head to https://insurtechmap.eu/submit/ We look forward to being part of this thriving sector and working with these companies as they grow from strength to strength. Many thanks for a great year and see you in 2023! The InsurTech Map Team

MEDIA RELEASE (Download here) Partnerships to support market entry for startups from 11 countries including Ukraine, Sweden, Finland, Bulgaria, Norway, Germany, USA Collaborations with established Swiss and Austrian companies and institutions focus on climate change, technology advancements, and the circular economy World's leading pharmaceutical company MSD announces partnership for 2023 Launch of Kickstart Academy ZURICH, 21 November 2022 - Kickstart Innovation, one of the leading innovation platforms in Europe, announced this year's 55 partnerships in the form of Proofs of Concepts (PoCs), pilots, and commercial projects between startups, scaleups, and established companies and organizations in Switzerland and Austria. "Ten intense weeks are behind us, during which established Swiss companies and institutions, such as AXA, Coop, Swisscom, La Mobilière, PostFinance, Sanitas, the City of Zürich, Canton de Vaud, Credit Suisse, Galenica, CSS Insurance, and other organizations, explored new solutions with startups from sixteen countries," shares Katka Letzing, Co-Founder and CEO of Kickstart Innovation. "I’m looking forward to following their successes as we have seen in the past years, for example, with Planted, which has collaborated with Coop. Other successful partnerships have been formed between Veezoo and AXA, and decentriq and PostFinance." Fifty-two startups, thirteen of them from Switzerland, as well as intrapreneurship teams have brought solutions for the future to Switzerland. They are diverse and range from a software platform for decarbonizing supply chains to sustainable insulation packaging made from recycled wastepaper to solar thermal and photovoltaic collectors that achieve one of the highest energy densities in the world. In total, Kickstart has generated more than 270 innovation deals since its inception in 2016. Helping partners identify key themes, Kickstart provides opportunities for open innovation. An exclusive number of the best national and international startups and scaleups are selected annually to participate in the ten-week program in the fields of New Work & Learning, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, Smart Cities, Health & Wellbeing, and Intrapreneurship. A new Kickstart partnership is confirmed with MSD​, a leading global pharmaceutical manufacturer. “We believe in the power of innovation to save and improve lives around the world. We are excited to join forces with Kickstart and leverage its network to bring healthcare innovations to the Swiss society and beyond” shared Ans Heirman, Managing Director at MSD Switzerland. Kickstart has engaged in the past seven years to support not only local and global scaleups, but also employees of organizations in the public and private sectors via Intrapreneurship Program. This year, initiated projects include Gridsteer’s multi-year and EU-wide research project in partnership with EPFL, local operator Romande Energie and the fast charging station operator GOFAST to demonstrate the technical and economical value of its multi-service controller for large scale battery energy storage systems. Last week, Kickstart launched the Kickstart Academy with more support for organizations with access to hackathons, innovation sprints, expert sessions, and more. Organizations engaged have included: Credit Suisse, Hirslanden, Swisscom, CSEM, La Mobilière, AXA, Holcim, PostFinance, Axpo, and energie360. Synopsis of 2022 partnerships: (details on the Kickstart website) Partnerships in the Finance & Insurance Vertical: Coop aims to increase business productivity, and therefore customer satisfaction, by piloting Typewise's text prediction software to increase writing speed and improve the quality of emails. Coop and finmarie will collaborate in the area of financial wealth-being. Coop employees can collaborate with financial coaches on their goals, as well as benefit from financial literacy training focused on topics like managing cash and debt, saving for education expenses, and planning for retirement. AXA and Boomerang Ideas are in discussion to launch a Proof of Concept to get representative market feedback on social media faster and more cost-efficient. Galexis AG, a Galenica Group company, and Unique AG will do a Proof of Concept with Unique's sales intelligence AI to automatically summarize customer service conversations into CRM and analyze topics to inform sales proactively and increase customer satisfaction. La Mobilière and Unique AG automatically record consultations for the purposes of a Proof of Concept in order to test the quality of the transcript or summary with the aim of improving the efficiency of the preparation and follow-up of consultations. Typewise shall in the context of a Proof of Concept increase the efficiency and quality of written correspondence at La Mobilière subsidiary Protekta Legal Protection Insurance Ltd significantly. La Mobilière has conducted a Proof of Concept with Boomerang Ideas for brief opinion surveys in the Swiss social media population and can now collect high-quality findings very rapidly. PostFinance and Unique AG will do a Proof of Value with Unique's sales intelligence AI to analyse, summarize, and document client meetings, and therefore reduce admin work for PostFinance's corporate- and retail client advisors while increasing the quality of the data. PostFinance and Yuh are exploring a collaboration with Boomerang Ideas in order to start market research on social media to receive rapid feedback on prototypes and conduct market analysis. VNTR | Innovation & Venturing by PostFinance and Typewise plan to collaborate in order to increase efficiency in the customer center thanks to the help of the start-up’s on-premises AI text prediction software. VNTR | Innovation & Venturing by PostFinance is exploring collaboration opportunities with AIDONIC in the area of impact banking. Swisscom B2B and Unique AG will run a Proof of Concept with Unique's sales intelligence AI to automatically summarize and analyze conversations with the goal to reduce the time needed to document sales calls and follow-up. localsearch, a Swisscom company, and Unique AG will do a Proof of Concept with Unique's sales intelligence AI to coach the salespeople live in the sales call as well as with after-call analytics in order to reduce the onboarding time of new hires. Swisscom and Boomerang Ideas have launched a pre-Proof of Concept to collect quick, cost-effective, and relevant market feedback through social media. Swisscom and Surfly are outlining a partnership in the field of digital trust through co-browsing, videochat and secure e-signatures. Kickstart and Klimate will partner on exploring the removal of carbon emissions associated with the program. Klimate and Sympower (alumnus) have joined forces to support Sympower in their decarbonization efforts with carbon removal, as well as their ambitious plans of compensating for all of its historical emissions, as well as future emissions. Partnerships in the Health & Wellbeing Vertical: AXA and Health Yourself are exploring a potential Proof of Concept by offering SME employees the possibility to do laboratory tests from home. TOM Medications and City of Zurich intend to set up a pilot project to determine whether the use of TOM Medications' Medi-Check can improve medication safety for senior citizens. Galenica AG and TOM Medications will partner up to conduct polymedication checks in a pilot for TOM App users, in order to increase patient safety. Sanitas and Health Yourself will collaborate to test whether Sanitas health insurance customers are willing and capable of using do-it-yourself healthcare services offered by Sanitas to take control of their health. Following the successful pilot, Sanitas did with Kickstart alumnus Regimen, their program has been integrated as a health offering in the "Health" section of the Sanitas Portal App since the beginning of November 2022. La Mobilière Insurance and Fjuul have launched a cooperation to establish a digital marketplace to promote health services for corporate customers. TOM Medications and Health Yourself will make remote monitoring of chronic disease indicators available to TOM users with lab tests from home. Partnerships in the Smart Cities Vertical: Coop and Naked Energy are evaluating the use of Virtu PVT, a hybrid solar collector providing both heat and power, to increase the energy efficiency at the Tropic House Frutigen. Coop and LEDCity have initiated a project to implement an intelligent lighting system that reduces energy consumption while collecting building information such as air quality and occupancy for future efficiency improvements. MClimate and CSEM plan to install and operate a POC at a school in the City of Neuchâtel in 2023, where MClimate's smart thermostatic LoRaWAN valves Vicki will be used to implement the need-based heating control optimization validated by CSEM in the frame of the EC project DOMOS with envisaged savings of up to 30% (POC supported by Schweiz Energie). The City of Zurich and Nudgd want to team up in a pilot project in the field of recyclables collection in public space. The aim is to build knowledge about the use of nudging elements on public grounds in the city of Zurich. The City of Zurich is testing the use of the smart LoRaWAN thermostat heads and the web-based management platform from MClimate. The aim is to test the handling of the solution and identify potential areas of application. According to MClimate, up to 30% of heating energy can be saved with the intelligent control of heating radiators. The City of Zurich and GRIN want to team up in a pilot project to investigate incentivized separate collection, as well as vendor-independent return boxes of reusable containers. It shall be examined how the population uses and interacts with GRIN return boxes. The City of Zurich and SolarGaps will work together to test the use of solar blinds to properly measure their potential for urban buildings. Partnerships in the Food & Retail Vertical: Coop and Nordic Umami Company intend to upcycle Coop's food manufacturing side products and develop a vegan umami product range to sell in retail and/or use in food production to enhance vegan meals and achieve a better taste experience. Coop is pursuing sustainable retail equipment with Purcell, testing plastic-free, smart refill systems for food and everyday essentials. PlasticFri will provide sustainable plastic alternatives such as compost bags to Coop through a Proof of Concept to expand its sustainability efforts in retail. Swiss vegan creamery New Roots and Coop have initiated a Proof of Concept to run a retail test environment for a new innovative plant-based cheese starting in 2023. SUPASO and MediService AG, a Galenica group company, have agreed to collaborate in the development and implementation of a sustainable, cellulose-fiber-based insulated shipping solution for pharmaceutical products. Kraftwerk and Swiss vegan creamery New Roots are working together on creating an additional plant-based cake and dessert options, as well as a Signature Dish with New Roots’ plant-based cheese to be available on the menu. Planted (alumnus) intends to use SUPASO’s sustainable cold-chain packaging solutions made from recycled waste paper for B2C shipments of its innovative plant-based dishes. Ampliphi will collaborate with SUPASO and Purcell to simplify access to sustainable packaging, saving time and money for consumer brands. New Roots is collaborating with Ampliphi to pilot a data-driven approach to sustainable packaging and responsible plastic management. SUPASO will utilize PlasticFri’s award-winning biodegradable film to further increase the sustainability and efficiency of its innovative insulation packaging to provide customers with a price-competitive insulated shipping solution based 100% on cellulose fiber. Ampliphi and Swisscom will partner to facilitate data collaboration using Swisscom's TrustRelay SaaS platform, increasing efficiency, improving security, and reducing legal risks associated with data sharing. Partnerships in the New Work & Learning Vertical: La Mobilière and Leadbacker agree on a collaboration to further develop the Scrum Master, Design Thinker & Facilitator community. La Mobilière and eevie will start cooperation to raise climate awareness amongst its employees (stakeholders) and reduce business carbon emissions, in line with their climate ambitions. PostFinance and Skyhive will collaborate on a skill management pilot to unleash human potential in order to future-proof its IT workforce. Leadbacker and Get More Brain will collaborate to generate a new user experience and lead to an improved up-skilling of key workforces by combining the two platforms. For more information, please contact: press@kickstart-innovation.com About Kickstart Kickstart is one of Europe's largest zero equity, open innovation platforms. Our mission is to build innovation ecosystems with purpose, by fast-forwarding innovation. We bring together public and private organizations, startups, investors, and experts, with the shared ambition to deliver next-generation products and services and have a meaningful impact at scale. Each year, Kickstart engages 100 entrepreneurs to collaborate with key players for proofs of concept, pilot and commercial projects, and other innovation partnerships. Additionally, through the intrapreneurship program Kickstart helps established organizations promote and accelerate internal innovation. Kickstart is a spin-off of Impact Hub Zurich and was launched in 2015 by digitalswitzerland. In 2022, Kickstart runs six verticals: New Work & Learning, Finance & Insurance, Food & Retail, Health & Wellbeing, Smart Cities, and intrapreneurship together with partner organizations across industries: AXA, Coop, Swisscom, La Mobilière, PostFinance, ETH Zürich, CSS, Galenica, City of Zurich, Credit Suisse, CSEM, Empa NEST, Sanitas, University Hospital Zurich, Axpo, Panter, SATW, Impact Hub Switzerland, Canton de Vaud, Santenext, Swiss Federal Office of Energy SFOE, Swiss Healthcare Startups, Growpal, Switzerland Global Enterprise, Ringier, Wenger & Vieli AG, Google for Startups, MLL, South Pole, WECOCO, Day8, HealthTech Cluster Switzerland, DealStation, Climate Lab, Atos Austria, Wien Energie, MAVA, SwissLEAP, EPFL, Hirslanden, Mediclinic, IMD, gfm and more.

Weekly Digests are shared during the 10-week Kickstart program to keep our community up to date on exciting news, announcements, and updates from Kickstart, our partners, and our startups and alumni. View in browser here. Happy Friday, Kickstart Family! This week, we hosted our annual Advisor & Expert Networking Event, celebrating our community of over 150 advisors and experts who have supported our scaleups and intrapreneurship teams throughout the 10-week program. The evening consisted of Kickstart Bingo, breakout sessions, and of course, a delicious aperó catered by #Kickstarter16 Dalou! Yesterday we spotlighted our 2022 Intrapreneurship teams at the Kickstart Intrapreneurship Demo Day, to celebrate their growth and achievements throughout the program. Teams from CSEM, Swisscom, Hirslanden, La Mobilière and EPFL took the stage to present the projects they have been working on to a crowd of partners, coaches, advisors, and experts. We also had a fireside chat with Markus Wolf, Head of Open Innovation at La Mobilière and Intrapreneurship program alumnus. If you would like to get a headstart on your Christmas shopping, we have collated some cool gift ideas below from our Kickstarters to give you inspiration for the season of giving! This is the 8th and final Weekly Digest of 2022, with the Kickstart Closing Ceremony & Party next Thursday, 17th November. Come join us for an evening of celebration, announcements, and fun to mark the end of the 2022 program. We hope to see you there. As always, thank you for being part of this adventure! Vertical Vision 👀 Finance & Insurance #Kickstarter21 CYSEC have raised an additional €2m from Karista. The bulk of these funds will be invested in new space and in the deployment of cybersecurity solutions in the space industry. Klimate received the Investor Choice award and Finalist award in the Mastercard Lighthouse Massiv Program Showcase. CyberSmart won the UK Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award at the UK IT Industry Awards. #Kickstarter21 Decentriq launched their no-code Media Clean Rooms – a tool unique in its ability to simplify first-party data collaboration for publishers and brands. Smart Cities The Office of Electronic Communications (Urząd Komunikacji Elektronicznej) granted CTHINGS.CO official permission to operate a private 5G network at the fair that showcases the potential of the new connectivity standard for industrial applications. SolarGaps accomplished a project with RENÉ Architekt in Zürich, in which their Smart Blinds solution was installed in their newly designed buildings. Naked Energy was distinguished with the Climate Positive Award 2022, due to their market-leading products supporting an equitable and fair energy transition. Nudgd announced their collaboration with Rimi Baltic Group as part of the Future Hub program for innovative digital solutions by Helve. New Work & Learning #Kickstarter21 Scribe launched 2 new features on their browser extension and desktop app that turns any process into a step-by-step guide. #Kickstarter18 Labster launched their new Body Planes and Sections simulation to scan regions and subregions of a chimpanzee to locate internal injuries and use directional terminology to identify and patch up external wounds. #Kickstarter20 Time is Ltd celebrated the launch of their free Calendar Analytics for teams with Google Workspace with Office 365 in the works. Try it here. Health & Wellbeing Happy Bob has collaborated with Dexcom to advance diabetes treatment and make it more customizable and convenient. TOM Medications featured in SAT.1's Next In Business series for the episode on Digital Health. Watch the interview here. #Kickstarter21 Huma is a Best in Class finalist for the 2022 UCSF Health Hub Digital Health Awards. The winner will be announced on 14 November at HLTH in Las Vegas. Food & Retail New Roots & ARYZTA Food Solutions collaborated to produce the innovative and original "Cheezzy Chüechli”. Nordic Umami has launched their ‘fishless sauce’ in Finland’s big-box retailer Prisma Jumbo. #Kickstarter19 Planted has launched two products in one of the world’s leading health and wellness retailers and the largest in Europe: Holland & Barrett. Main Events 🗓 Vertical Journeys & more on our website here. Swiss Food Week: Can plant proteins secure our supply? - 15 November 2022 @ Kraftwerk Kickstart Investor Summit - 15 November 2022 @ Virtual Event (invite only) Kickstart Closing Ceremony & Party - 17 November 2022 @ Kraftwerk #Kickstarter22 Spotlight: fin:marie interview here. Christmas Inspiration 🎁 In order: 1) #Kickstarter22 New Roots - Vegan Raclette - CHF 7,20 2) #Kickstarter22 fin:marie - Finanzen sind Weiblich - CHF 39,90 3) #Kickstarter21 tideocean - Sustainable Dominos - CHF 29,00 Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more to come! Best wishes, Alanna Murphy | Senior Program Manager

We are spotlighting this year's incredible cohort through the means of fun & quick interviews to gain further insight into their startup journeys, unveil their driving forces and expose what it REALLY takes to be an entrepreneur in 2022... Name: Karolina Decker Title: CEO & Founder Company: fin:marie Kickstart Cohort: 2022 What was the inspiration behind fin:marie? 💭 After 13 years of working in the financial industry and recognizing the imbalance between male and female financial situations and securities, my co-founder [Leitha Matz] and I started 'Mind The Gap' in 2017, a non-profit organization specializing in financial education for our female clients and women in general. With over 80 women attending our workshops, we quickly understood the demand for financial education in this space, and fin:marie was born at the end of 2018 to reach even more women. What are the challenges you identified that women are facing financially? 🚧 Women are still heavily underrepresented in terms of financial needs. Let’s look at the statistics - In Europe, investment and pension gaps affect more than 200 million women. only 11% of women in Europe invest money in the long term, in comparison to 40% of men. Women also have 60% less pension than men, not only in Europe but worldwide. On top of that, more than 85% of women feel misunderstood by their financial advisors or investment marketers, which is a big reason why they don’t get into investing. If you calculate the cumulative lifetime earnings for women vs. men, the gap equates to €1M. That’s €1M LESS that women receive at the end of their retirement compared to men. From a corporate perspective, PwC ran a study that showed financial service firms are losing €700B in revenue opportunity each year, by not fully meeting the needs of female clients. Addressing this would be a huge economic opportunity for them. You're currently raising €3M for your next funding round - what will the round be dedicated to? 📈 Since raising our €1.4M seed round, the team has generated revenue and publicity (Süddeutsche Zeitung, Handelsblatt, Cosmopolitan, etc.), launched the fin:marie beta app, and acquired insurance brokerage and real estate licensing. This next round will be dedicated to scaling our business and team for market entry into countries like Switzerland, Austria, and Luxembourg, as well as developing our operations and products. One of our new features is implementing embedded insurance products in our portfolio. So we are not offering only the classical investment attached, but also insurance on top of that. How has your experience been at Kickstart this year? 🚀 I love how the Kickstart team is involved and engaged each step of the way. You get the feeling that it isn’t just ‘work’ - it is also coming from the heart. It’s very natural how it’s done, and the team, partners, and community are the kind of people we like to work with. The fact that we all spend so much time at work, it’s important for there to be the right environment, so Kickstart has done this very well! Also of course the network of corporations and investors is very beneficial. Finally, congratulations on your recent book launch! Can you tell us what readers can expect? 📕 Thank you! The idea behind the book, “Finanzen sind Weiblich” (Finance is Female) written by myself and my 2 co-founders [Leitha Matz & Rica Klitzke], is to encourage women to start thinking about and exploring investments, increase their awareness, and also increase their confidence in investing. In the book, we present 5 different female personas, with varying lifestyles and varying wealth profiles. This allows female readers of all ages and backgrounds to relate to a persona and learn about various investment strategies specific to them. We are currently translating the book into English, and can’t wait to reach a global audience of female readers. About fin:marie: fin:marie is working to improve the lives of millions of women across Europe to help them get on the path to financial independence, by offering the right tools and creating a combination of education, self-exploration, and support. We are refining solutions specifically aimed at the financial needs and motivations of women. We've successfully collaborated on 40+ partnerships with 1500+ participants and top companies like SAP, AirBnB, and Soundcloud, to bring financial education and wellness to their employees. This provides a B2B opportunity, but other collaborations with external partners like ING-DBA or Smartbroker are B2C, focused on bringing our users value through easy mobile and desktop solutions along their financial lifecycles.

Weekly Digests are shared during the 10-week Kickstart program to keep our community up to date on exciting news, announcements, and updates from Kickstart, our partners, and our startups and alumni. View in browser here. Happy Friday, Kickstart Family! This week, Kickstart headed to Bern to attend CSEM's 7th edition of their Business Day 2022, as part of our Smart Cities & Health & Wellbeing vertical journeys. The event showcased digital technologies in the fields of digital health, IoT, Industry 4.0, and sustainable energy, and their importance for the evolution of CSEM's industrial partners. We were also delighted to attend Startup Nights in Winterthur with our cohort, one of the biggest events of the year in the startup ecosystem. Over 8,000 attendees heard from a number of inspiring speakers, including Christoph Brand, CEO of Axpo and Kickstart Fellow partner, on the role of startups as technology and innovation drivers providing solutions for current challenges. Pascal Bieri, Co-Founder of Planted and #Kickstarter19, also took the stage to share how they became the fastest-growing alternative protein company in Europe… #makeithappen! Next week, we are excited to host our annual Advisor-Expert Networking Event, celebrating Kickstart's community of experts who have supported our startups and scaleups throughout the 10-week Kickstart Program. Looking forward to a great night of networking! Thank you for being part of this adventure! Vertical Vision 👀 Finance & Insurance #Kickstarter21 Decentriq announced their $5m venture debt funding from Silicon Valley Bank, going towards building the Switzerland of Data. Typewise has extended its partnership to serve more clients internationally with hosttech GmbH. Surfly, bsurance and #Kickstarter21 Riskwolf have all been selected for the Insurtech100 list of the world’s most innovative InsurTech companies in 2022. bsurance recently launched its new partnership with German startup - anybill - bringing digital receipts and embedded insurance to the same place. The Climate Choice has just hit 10k followers, and is expanding its team, looking for a Content Marketing & Events Manager. Smart Cities #Kickstarter19 Sympower raised their €22 million investment round from a group of five venture capital (VC) funds, which will go towards expanding their flexibility services across Europe. #Kickstarter21 Univrses is collaborating with Norwegian Public Roads Administration and Mesta to capture data for the development of intelligent driver support systems. #Kickstarter19 Breeze Technologies’ air quality management solutions have now been included in the new Digital X Solution Catalogue of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). New Work & Learning #Kickstarter19 Taskbase won 2nd place in the semi-final at the Global EdTech Startup Award Competition 2022. #Kickstarter20 Sharpist partnered with The Work Innovation Lab by Asana to study executive leaders who often have an outsized impact on their organizations and how they set goals. Health & Wellbeing #Kickstarter21 Huma celebrated 1 year since winning pharma’s Nobel Prize - the Prix Galien USA Award for Best Digital Health Product. Since then, they have continued expanding their impact by partnering with AstraZeneca, acquiring iPlato Healthcare / myGP, working with NHS Wales, TAMER Healthcare, and more, to support a network of +27 million patients around the world. Last week, medicalmotion GmbH trained ARAG case managers on the use of their platform in case management. They can now use medicalmotion for over 100 ICD-10 codes and symptoms ranging from migraine, osteoarthritis, and back pain to shoulder impingement syndrome. Food & Retail #Kickstarter19 Planted is now available on the UK’s leading online 100% #plantbased supermarket The Vegan Kind. Kern Tec, #Kickstarter21, has been awarded one of the Top Retail Startups 2022 at the European Retail Night in Vienna. Right now their innovative milk alternative - based on rescued apricot kernels - is available nationwide at Billa Plus. After 3 years of development, #Kickstarter19 Kaffe Bueno launched their new version of KAFFOIL™, KAFFOIL-R™, a truly sustainable and higher-performing alternative to Argan Oil. Main Events 🗓 Vertical Journeys & more on our website here. Swiss Food Week: Can plant proteins secure our supply? - 15 November 2022 @ Kraftwerk Kickstart Investor Summit - 15 November 2022 @ Virtual Event (invite only) Kickstart Closing Ceremony & Party - 17 November 2022 @ Kraftwerk #Kickstarter22 Spotlight: eevie interview here. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more to come! Best wishes, Alanna Murphy | Senior Program Manager

We are spotlighting this year's incredible cohort through the means of fun & quick interviews to gain further insight into their startup journeys, unveil their driving forces and expose what it REALLY takes to be an entrepreneur in 2022... Name: Antonius Willms Title: CEO & Co-Founder Company: eevie Kickstart Cohort: 2022 How did ‘eevie’ come to be? 💡 I started off in sustainability consulting for large corporations - and quickly realized I wasn't actually generating any impact, just creating great ideas that weren’t implemented as ‘sustainability’ was just seen as a trend at the time. In 2019, I decided I needed to do this bottom-up in order to have an influence on these things. Through research and brainstorming with my co-founder Lenni, we came to the realization that the problem was two-fold; behavior change and information. We wanted to provide a solution that made the relevant information accessible, and informative, and build awareness to motivate and enable behavior change in the form of a customized journey that fits into current routines - making the lifestyle transition more gradual and in turn more permanent. At this point, big companies started paying a lot more attention to the importance of sustainability and the requirement of employee buy-in in order to achieve their company goals. Companies need to change their mindset and culture for this to happen. We complemented the needs of corporations since we offered a solution to help people become more sustainable. What are the risks at stake for companies that are not focusing on sustainability? ⛔️ For stakeholders, ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) compliance and the focus on sustainability in particular have become much more business-critical - even vital. More now than ever, a company’s value and appeal now boil down to its SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) index. Companies are being challenged by diverse stakeholder groups to show what they are doing to future-proof their businesses. There is plenty of evidence by now that companies who do business with all stakeholders in mind, will not only increase profits through new innovations and new markets but also be more competitive when it comes to talent recruitment and retention, the attraction of (new) consumers or access to cheaper capital, as banks see companies with a great SDG index as less risky. Companies that are deemed risky might lose insurability and thus won’t be able to operate in the first place. Rising costs through energy and CO2 prices as well as an upcoming European-wide CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) reporting regulation will only add to the pressures companies are already operating under. You get my point. Front runners like Unilever, Orsted or Patagonia have the advantage to set the new norms together with governments instead of having to follow regulations that are being put in place without their involvement. Those companies who put sustainability onto their top agenda today will win. Followers will be followers at max if they manage to continue existing. How can eevie help? Can you provide a use case example of how your solution has made an impact? 🌱 We are supporting corporations with Employee Climate Engagement programs. We believe that any transformation requires a culture change to be successful. Thus our aim is to create climate-friendly work cultures that help implement ESG strategies. With our innovative SaaS platform and insightful reports, we empower companies to plan and run highly configurable sustainability programs in line with their ESG targets and to develop a strong sustainability mindset within their organizations. As an example: One of our Impact Partners (as we call our customers) from the banking sector had put sustainability measures in place at their offices, only to realize that employees were not using the opportunities that they were offered. So they looked for a partner to actively engage their employees and make it attractive to them to participate in the green office projects. We provided them with the eevie app, which is accessible to all employees, as well as our live dashboard that gave them aggregated data on their teams’ climate engagement and behavior changes as well as CO2 emission reductions over time. Throughout the different campaigns (including Waste, Digital Data, and Hybrid Working), employees were encouraged to join their colleagues in teams and collectively work on different challenge goals. The company rewarded every employee with tree seedlings that they could plant directly from the app in global projects. The result was amazing! Not only did employees appreciate being involved in such a gamified way into their employer's sustainability journey, but they also made great progress in reducing their emissions, leading to a decrease in the company’s scope 2 and 3 emissions. What is your personal goal with eevie? 🎯 I want to contribute to reducing carbon emissions significantly by changing the way people view sustainability and adapting their behaviors to decarbonize their lives. I want to help companies achieve their net zero commitments rapidly by empowering their employees, so they ‘walk the talk’ and execute the companies’ sustainability strategy. How has Kickstart been able to support your startup journey so far? 💫 It's the first program we’ve been involved in that actively helps to navigate enterprise sales. It's just so difficult, and cutting through the red tape and finding synergies with potential partners is invaluable for startups because it saves a lot of resources and time. We have received direct requests from corporates who want to collaborate with startups, are interested in sustainability, and can also open doors to a variety of candidates that could be a good match for us. Even if we just had access to one or two of the companies, that would have been amazing. But the fact that there are so many partners within Kickstart’s network is incredible. It gives us more visibility, it gives us better insight into the Swiss market, and also gives us more opportunities. I feel like every [startup] somehow has the chance to at least get one or two opportunities going. Also - we don't have time; we're running out of time to release all of the sustainability goals that we have as a society, and avenues like Kickstart help accelerate that. This is just really important in general for society. About eevie: Today, more than 100,000,000 employees work for companies that have made formal climate commitments, however, companies are struggling to take their employees along on their journey towards a climate-friendly work culture. eevie is an employee engagement tool that helps enterprise corporations plan & runs highly configurable sustainability programs so that they can foster a climate-friendly work culture to accelerate companies' decarbonization goals. We help our existing clients including DHL, Bayer Switzerland, ABN Amro, EDF, Arm, and many more to engage and reward their employees in climate action with our platform. Get in touch with a.willms@eevie.io or info@eevie.io, or visit their website to learn more.

We were delighted to welcome over 80 local and international executives to Beaulieu Circulaire for Kickstart’s exclusive CEO Dinner Lausanne. ✨ It was a privilege to give our partners and scaleups a sneak peek of the new venue dedicated to #circularity and #inclusion and home to our partner Impact Hub Lausanne (officially opening in Spring 2023), and to be part of the thriving atmosphere of Switzerland's leading companies and institutions engaging with our inspirational scaleups. 🌐 Before we kicked off the delicious 3-course meal, curated from local produce, attendees were welcomed by Katka Letzing, CEO & Co-Founder of Kickstart, and Amanda Byrde, Co-Founder of Impact Hub Lausanne & Geneva, before being immersed into the current activities of Etat de Vaud from their Head of Business Unit, Raphaël Conz. Following the starter, we heard pitches from 10 of our 2022 cohort including Workwolf, AIDONIC, Doconomy, Ampliphi, SolarGaps - Solar Panel Window Blinds, urbanistic, Happy Bob by Harald AI, Deep Longevity representing over 6 countries including Sweden 🇸🇪, Hong Kong 🇭🇰, Canada 🇨🇦, Finland 🇫🇮, Ukraine 🇺🇦 and Germany 🇩🇪. It was also great to see a representation of the Canton de Vaud ecosystem 🇨🇭 from Virtuosis as well as EPFL spin-off Gridsteer. Alice Fauconnet, Co-Founder of #Kickstarter22 New Roots AG, shared the incredible origin story of their ethical and sustainable vegan creamery. To close the evening, we had a diverse panel including Christoph Hunziker from La Mobilière, Nathalie Cadot from MAVA Foundation, and Julia Binder from IMD sharing their companies’ approaches to innovation and sustainability. 🌿 Thank you all for a wonderful evening, and looking forward to seeing you again at the Closing Ceremony on 17 November! 🚀 #makeithappen #CEODinner #sustainability #inclusion #executive #collaboration #networking #paneldiscussion #pitches #scaleups #corporate #circulareconomy #openinnovation Galenica, Hirslanden Lausanne, Sanitas Krankenversicherung, Coop, PostFinance, Innovaud, UBS, EPFL (École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne), Nestlé, Swisscom, Credit Suisse, Romande Energie, ThinkSport, University of Lausanne - UNIL, CSEM, MLL Legal, Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley and others.

Our Global Partner AXA Switzerland hosted a virtual Kickstart Pitch Day last Monday for their international offices to learn more about our successful and innovative partnership. 🌎 The event included an introduction to the Innovation Gilde by Tatjana Bender, Head of Corporate Development & Innovation at AXA, followed by a presentation from Søren Nielsen, Entrepreneur & Author of the book “Death by Innovation Theater”. 🎭 Matthias Gasser and Deborah Dhanapal, Open Innovation Managers at AXA Switzerland facilitated a panel discussion on Best-Practice Innovation with Tatjana, Søren, Claudia Bienentreu, Head of Open Innovation at AXA Switzerland, and Katka Letzing, CEO & Co-Founder at Kickstart Innovation. The panel shared their thoughts on what makes a pilot successful and the right balance between proximity to the core business matter and innovation. ⚖️ For the finale, the audience heard pitches from our 2022 scaleups; CyberSmart from 🇬🇧, Surfly from 🇳🇱, keleya digital-health solutions - we are hiring! & medicalmotion GmbH from 🇩🇪 and Unique & Share.P - Sustainable Mobility Solution from 🇨🇭, demonstrating their innovative solutions and the caliber of companies Kickstart sources for our partners, such as AXA, every year. Thank you to AXA Switzerland for this great event - we love to #makeithappen with you! 💥

Earlier this month, Kickstart headed to Nyon for the La Mobilière Open Innovation Day! We had a diverse audience, including multiple La Mobiliére Teams, Kickstart startups, and partner representatives from Fusion Partners, Sanitas Krankenversicherung, and Galenica. The event kicked off with an introduction by Thomas Bossart, Head of Life & Pensions and member of the Executive Board. This was followed by insights into how Kickstart helps La Mobilière accelerate innovation, presented by Aline Brügger, Head of Innovation, Process & Transformation, and Ralph Rimet, Senior Management Consultant in Open Innovation. Kickstart CEO & Co-Founder Katka Letzing touched on Kickstart’s impact across all 5 verticals, and our unique focus on Proof of Concepts and pilot collaborations to maximize success for all parties. In addition, pitches from our 2022 scaleups Health Yourself and Pro Aidants - Swiss Carers from 🇨🇭, Deep Longevity from 🇭🇰, and Surfly from 🇳🇱, demonstrated their innovative solutions and the caliber of companies that Kickstart sources for our partners, such as La Mobilière, every year. To wrap up, the audience learned about ongoing innovation initiatives from Nicolas S. & João Encarnação, representing Kickstart partner Sanitas, who discussed their case study with Redona Hafizi from TOM Medications, another brilliant 2022 Kickstarter. Thanks to all participants and looking forward to future collaboration!

Weekly Digests are shared during the 10-week Kickstart program to keep our community up to date on exciting news, announcements, and updates from Kickstart, our partners, and our startups and alumni. View in browser here. Happy Friday, Kickstart Family! Last Saturday, #Kickstarter22 New Roots hosted the team on a VIP tour as part of an open house day at their headquarters in Oberdiessbach. Read more about the delicious & insightful experience on our blog here. Kickstart Global Partner AXA hosted a virtual Kickstart Pitch Day on Monday for their international offices to learn more about our successful and innovative partnership. The event included a panel discussion on Best-Practice Innovation with Søren Nielsen, entrepreneur and author of “Death by Innovation Theater”, Tatjana Bender, Head of Corporate Development & Innovation at AXA, Katka Letzing, CEO & Co-Founder at Kickstart & Claudia Bienentreu, Head of Open Innovation at AXA Switzerland. This was followed by 6 pitches from our 2022 scaleups CyberSmart, Surfly, Keleya, Unique, Share.P & medicalmotion. Tuesday marked our second exclusive CEO Dinner of 2022, where we welcomed over 80 local and international executives to Beaulieu Circulaire Lausanne - the new venue dedicated to circularity and inclusion in Switzerland. Huge thanks to all of our speakers, including Raphaël Conz, Head of Business Unit at Canton de Vaud, Christoph Hunziker from La Mobilière, Nathalie Cadot from MAVA Foundation, Julia Binder from IMD, Alice Fauconnet from #Kickstarter22 New Roots and our 10 pitchers Virtuosis, Workwolf, Aidonic, Doconomy, Ampliphi, SolarGaps, Urbanistic, Happy Bob, Deep Longevity & Gridsteer. To wrap up the week, Kickstart hosted the City of Zurich Demo Day at the Smart City Lab, where 4 of our 2022 scaleups - Surfly, Nudgd, SolarGaps & Share.P - pitched to various City of Zurich departments, showcasing their innovative solutions and how they could be implemented within the organization. Thank you for being part of this adventure! Vertical Vision 👀 Finance & Insurance Aidonic finalized another successful pilot project with Pan American Development Foundation testing their award-winning digital platform in Trinidad, proving that humanitarian aid distributions can be traceable, transparent, and monitored remotely and in real-time. bsurance partnered with leading Slovakian financial institution Tatra Banka on a PoC to create and test a new embedded insurance product: transaction-based short-term travel insurance. Doconomy was selected by the United Nations to present leading perspectives on Climate Action at COP27. Katka Letzing, CEO & Co-Founder of Kickstart was a guest speaker on the London FinTech Podcast. Listen here. Smart Cities Together with global partners from the Circular Digital Health (DiCE project), GRIN has secured ~€10 million from the EU's Horizon Europe program to tackle digital health waste. The goal is to further develop and deliver smart, universal collection systems for medical products in three large-scale pilots in Belgium, Spain, and Slovenia. LEDCity has expanded to Spain, and has already powered one of their first parking lots in Valencia - illuminated with LEDCity’s energy-efficient lighting system. Naked Energy has partnered with Rinnai UK, a branch of the leading Japanese heating water control and thermal technology manufacturer. New Work & Learning SkyHive launched the Global Alliance for Skills to aid economic renaissance and labor market transitions. #Kickstarter21 Braindate has announced its partnership with Unwrapit. The feature will help users strengthen the connection they formed during their conversations by sending a token of appreciation to their fellow braindaters. Health & Wellbeing Deep Longevity is launching its new solution, JuvAge - a SaaS portal that hosts their patented aging clocks. The clocks can predict Biological Age by analyzing various data types such as clinical blood reports, psychological surveys, microbiomic reports, and more. Public Health Office Grisons now feature Pro Aidants Benefits Calculator for Family Carers on their website, to show the services that caring and caring relatives can claim, providing them with a personalized list of possible financing entitlements. TOM Medications peer-reviewed study on the “Prevalence of Drug-Drug Interactions and Duplicate Therapy in Chronic Patients in Switzerland” is now published. Food & Retail #Kickstarter21 Aqua Cultured Foods announced their partnership with SV Group to bring alternative seafood sushi cuts to their smart fridges across Switzerland. PlasticFri are finalists for the Green Award by The Swedish-American Chamber of Commerce in New York. Check out Ampliphi’s New Venture Video, live now. Main Events 🗓 Vertical Journeys & more on our website here. Swiss Food Week: Can plant proteins secure our supply? - 15 November 2022 @ Kraftwerk Kickstart Investor Summit - 15 November 2022 @ Virtual Event (invite only) Kickstart Closing Ceremony & Party - 17 November 2022 @ Kraftwerk #Kickstarter22 Spotlight: Urbanistic interview here. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more to come! Best wishes, Alanna Murphy | Senior Program Manager